Re: Very cheap molded enclosures?

Rich Grise wrote: 
On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 08:41:16 -0800, Tim Wescott wrote:


Joerg wrote:


Hello Newsgroup,

Again I came upon the usual hardcore enclosure challenge: Initial quantities will be low, 10k to 20k/year, but the whole device would be doomed if production cost would be greater than $7-8. Sales just wouldn't happen.

I like your posts, Joerg. "Low quantities" = "10k/year". I've never worked on anything with production higher than 100ea per year.

Question: Is there a company that offers "shuttle runs" for enclosures? Just as they are offered for chips where you 'ride along' on a corner of someone else's wafer?

The difference is that if you want the enclosure to be really cheap per piece you need to have the holes, and all other features, molded in. Drilling them after the fact will simply cost more. 


If you use aluminum or FR-4 for a recessed front panel, they can be
punched for pennies, please forgive the alliteration. :-)

And with SMT stuff, you might not even need it punched, except maybe
the plated-through holes. I don't know if typical vias are drilled
or punched.

Cheers!
Rich

This is the third or fourth post of Rich's that used "punch" for "drill". It took that long to seep through my poor slow brain:

If you start with an enclosure with the right materials and design, and plan on putting a stick-on top panel then you can have the holes punched in one operation with a custom die. A set of dies with round holes should be relatively cheap. If you punch toward the inside of the box the holes can even be a bit ratty as long as they're clean on top (or at least ugly but concave) where you need to stick on the label. You could even have a few oblong holes (like for the ribbon cable from the panel) at a bit higher cost for the die.

I'd inquire at your local tool-and-die maker, or perhaps several. Some _will_ turn you away; you need the capable one with an open mind who wants to listen and do business. If you can't find anyone local then try rec.crafts.metalworking -- some of those guys run shops. If that doesn't work then email me: I know a shop that used to be really into that sort of innovation until the owner died. They may still be but its one of my dad's contacts so its been a while since I've heard from them.

You may even be able to do a proof run in the states then ship the dies overseas for the production work.

Another thought is an enclosure that takes end panels -- as Rich said having a bunch of aluminum front and rear panels stomped out on an NC machine should be pretty cheap.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
.

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